MrSterlingBS wrote:I will take a look at the other assemblers.
Yes, please definitely do that! See below:
ChibiAkumas is not the biggest expert for the 6502 and VIC, but his videos, source code and tools are good for me at the moment.
I also made a quick look of the
YT video regarding bitmap graphics.
I am sorry, but this video is a strain to watch. They're approaching the VIC-20 hardware with a mindset belonging to platforms with a Z80 CPU. The few parts of the source code concerning the VIC-20 are buried within lots of preprocessor #ifdefs for other platforms, which is not helpful to get an overview. In the name of "portability", they arrive at the lowest common denominator, and what they tell about VIC-20 graphics has been superceded by improved methods (shown
here in Denial) that have been around for more than one decade. For API level, OS conformant bitmap graphics on the VIC-20, MINIGRAFIK and
its assorted tools are still State of the Art.
If i am a better 6502/VIC coder in the future, maybe, i think i change the tool.
You should probably make the switch immediately, before your current tool set lets you strand on an island, so to speak. When it comes to (cross-)assemblers, ACME, xa65, ca65, DASM ... for any of them you can ask questions here, and you will get an answer. And there is nothing wrong about taking other people programs, dissecting them, and then transferring the findings to new, own code.
It should go without saying, that one good way to learn programming is actually doing it. Preferably with reliable sources and examples. One book I seriously recommend is "VC-20 intern" from Data Becker, in German. It contains lots of info about the VIC-20 hardware and software, about the memory map (zeropage, OS workspace, application memory, I/O registers, etc.) and a fully commented listing of the ROM (BASIC and KERNAL). Over at
Forum64, they provide the "F64 Wolke" where that book can be downloaded as *.pdf (you'll need to do a few introductory postings though to be granted access).